Tag Archives: 2009

At around 10pm Saturday night, Paolo’s Ristorante on the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and N Street NW caught on fire. I happened to be sitting across the street having a drink at Martin’s Tavern, when I noticed black smoke billowing out the back roof of the restaurant; shortly thereafter we saw flames. At the time, Paolo’s was in full swing, packed with diners and DCers prepping for a night out. Two fire engines promptly appeared and the small blaze was adeptly extinguished–it took about an hour or so, for the whole operation to be over. It was very cool to see the DCFD is full action. This included two ladders in operation, hooks pulling down flaming debris, and multiple fire extinguishers. I even spotted a female firefighter. Yeh, chick, represent!

From my vantage point, the fire was not very big and most likely started in the kitchen at the back of the restaurant. It looked to be near some sort of chimey-esque vent. Given the fire’s size and location, and the fast response of the DCFD, I assumed everyone (staff and patrons) got out OK. This conjecture was furthered when I walked by Paolo’s at 1:30am and saw the staff sitting at the restaurant’s bar having drinks and chilling out. When it’s 11pm on a Saturday night and your workplace, which happens to be a bar, closes unexpectedly, what else should you do besides grab a drink, enjoy the weather and hit up the nightlife? Continue reading →

It seems to me that the first two months of 2009 have been a commuting nightmare. The morning traffic report on NPR is always citing a series of major delays on the metrorail, metrobus or the DC Metro area roadways. In recent days it’s been an Orange/Blue line derailment and traffic ridden lane closures on Route 50, not to mention the havoc caused by Monday’s Snowpocalypse. Even for those of us on foot, the congestion and hecticness of navigating the DC streets seems to have multiplied in 2009. Pedestrians and drivers are more irritable, hasty and almost reckless with their decision making. Yesterday, I saw a jaywalker hastily cross the “Vortex of Doom” (aka the Farragut North junction) without looking both ways and he quite nearly got creamed by a double decker bus. Could the state of the economy and the accompanying angst be trickling down into the state of our daily commutes?

In case you were under a rock yesterday, we had us an Inauguration yesterday. Our 44th President was sworn in on the steps of the Capitol while an estimated two million people witnessed it and the following parade.

Our prolific area photographers were out in force yesterday; many of them you’ll recognize from prior visits to the Flashback. I encourage you to check out our Flickr feed, as all but one of the following shots came from it. And for images around the world, check out a special Flickr section that features some great shots taken by photographers outside our Beltway.

Many, many thanks to our regular pool contributors; you guys made my job extremely hard today with all the great photos. Keep it up!